Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin completes staff with hiring of assistant Antwon Jackson

jackson

With the July evaluation period on the horizon it’s important that schools with openings on their coaching staff make the necessary hires.

Cincinnati became the most recent school to take care of that issue on Friday, as head coach Mick Cronin announced the hiring of Antwon Jackson as an assistant coach.

Jackson spent the last four seasons on Derek Kellogg’s staff at UMass, and also on his resume are stints at William & Mary and with the DC Assault AAU program.

“The people here at the University of Cincinnati have been fantastic,” Jackson said in a statement released by the school. “I have visited here before and always thought that I could see myself working here one day. UC has a great basketball tradition and plays in an outstanding league in the Big East Conference.

“I’m looking forward to working alongside Coach Cronin and the basketball staff. I like the way that he is real with the players. He’s very versatile in that when he needs to pump you up, he’ll pump you up, but when he needs to drop the hammer, he’ll do that too.”

With three key figures (Cheikh Mbodj, JaQuon Parker and Cashmere Wright) moving into their senior seasons and Sean Kilpatrick entering his junior campaign this is an important summer for the Bearcats on the recruiting trail.

Obviously the hope is that adding Jackson will give Cincinnati a nice boost on that front, in addition to what he can bring from a strategy standpoint.

“I’ve seen what he has been a part of at UMass and also William and Mary, rebuilding programs with a hard-working mentality, and I know he understands what it takes to be successful in college basketball,” said Cronin in the statement announcing the hiring of Jackson and strength and conditioning coach Mike Rehfeldt.

“That shares our belief that having the right attitude is imperative to success. He will help us on the floor, in the locker room and also in the key area of recruiting. Antwon has built great relationships and I am confident he will be able to help us as a recruiter.”

Photo credit: University of Massachusetts

Raphielle is also the assistant editor at CollegeHoops.net and can be followed on Twitter at @raphiellej.